The art is replete with structures for adhesive coated sheets adapted to connect or join one surface to another surface. Tape from #810 MAGIC brand transparent tape available from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minn. is used extensively for a variety of purposes and is conventionally dispensed from a roll of such tape on a roll type dispenser such as the dispensers disclosed in Walker et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,864 and Reinecke U.S. Design Patent U.S. Pat. No. 116,599. Such a roll of tape must be manually cut by cutting means which is located on the dispenser. It is difficult for the user to manually cut precise, uniform lengths of the adhesive coated tape from the roll as it is difficult to repeatedly measure the lengths precisely. Such a tape/dispenser combination is not suitable for situations which require quick and efficient dispensing of precisely uniform, pre-cut lengths of adhesive coated tape.
It is also known to dispense MAGIC brand transparent tape from a pad of tape strips as described in Emmel U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,706. Emmel discloses a pad of tape strips where the length of a tape tab formed at one end of each tape strip extending from one end toward an opposite end is progressively greater from one side of the pad to the other. Emmel teaches that separation of the tape strip with the longest tape tab may be accomplished by grasping the tape tab and peeling the strip from the pad without separation of the next adjacent strip. Thus, a person desiring a sheet must manually separate an edge of a top sheet from the rest of the sheets in the stack and peel that sheet away, which is inconvenient, particularly when only one hand is available to remove the sheet. Such a stack is not suitable for situations where the user requires the use of both hands for operations other than the dispensing of the tape, such as, for example, gift wrapping.
Mertens U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,746 discloses a stack of adhesive coated sheets, such as labels comprising release means and attachment means which provide means for easy release of the top sheet in the stack of sheets. Mertens does not disclose placing the release means on alternating opposite edges of the sheets in the stack. Thus, similar to the tape strips taught by Emmel, a person desiring a sheet must manually separate an edge of a top sheet from the rest of the sheets in the stack and peel that sheet away, which is inconvenient, particularly when only one hand is available to remove the sheet. Mertens also does not disclose a container for the adhesive coated sheets adapted to enclose and protect the sheets.
Heretofore it is known to provide a stack of partially adhesive coated sheets stacked with the adhesive coating along alternate opposite sides of the stack to thereby releasably adhere the sheets together. Such sheets may be conveniently dispensed from a container using only one hand. Sheets from Post-it brand note pads and Post-it brand tape flags available from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company of St. Paul, Minn. are used extensively as such sheets. Post-it brand tape flags and an associated dispenser are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,320 to Miles et al. Z-stacked sheets and associated dispensers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. Loder 4,562,938; Loder 4,586,629; Smith 4,416,392; and Mertens 4,653,666. Such sheets are not suitable for joining or connecting a pair of surfaces together, however, because relatively small percentages of such sheets are coated with repositionable pressure sensitive adhesive. Also, such sheets are not suitable for joining or connecting a pair of surfaces together because the pressure sensitive adhesive is a relatively weak adhesive, because some of the sheets are made of paper and easily become damaged, and because the sheets are at least partially opaque so that they obscure more of the joined surfaces than desired.